Monday, 4 April 2011

3.3a Insect Pollination & 3.3b Wind Pollination

3.3a Main Points:
In the process of pollinating a flower, the must be a transfer of pollen from the anthers from to the stigma of another.
Pollen is a small structure which contains the male nuclei.
In a insect pollination the insect carries the pollen from one to another.

In a plant there needs to be adapted to attract insects. They have signals like colour petals and special scent to attract insects.

To some insects there also need to be a value and the flowers provide nectar (food) which is also a source of protein for some insects.

The stamen is the male part of the plant which has the anthers that produce the pollen grains. The female part is composed of stigma, style and ovules (called the Carpel).

3.3b Main points:
One of the adaptation of the pollen grain is that it is light weight and has some type of wing feature to be carried through the wind easily and anthers are sticking out to be exposed to the wind. Third feature is that the stigma has a really large SA, feather-like structure to catch the pollen grains in the wind.
In wind pollinated plants, they are often plants, No colour, No scent, No nectar (no point producing nectar) - No point, only wasting energy for a grass which is a wind pollinated plant